No state representative worked harder this legislative session to solve North Texas’ traffic congestion than my good friend Vicki Truitt. I share Truitt’s concerns and sense of urgency on this issue; however, we disagree on the funding solution that she and others proposed to the Legislature and on the practicality of commuter rail service.

The new transportation taxes proposed this session failed to acknowledge current economic times, the recession, growing unemployment and the credit crisis. Texas families already pay an average 32.7 percent of their limited income to the government in local, state and federal taxes.

Retail electric rates available to North Texans in the deregulated market are now predominantly below 12 cents per kilowatt hour, a review of 102 rate plans on a Texas Public Utility Commission Web site shows.

In these difficult economic times, there must be more scrutiny than ever regarding how Texas spends your tax dollars. Every odd year, the Texas Legislature meets to set the state budget for the following two fiscal years. After 19 hours of debate on the House Floor, we successfully passed your state budget. My Republican colleagues and I focused on the priorities that you and your family expressed were most important.

These budget priorities included increasing the quality of our public schools, improving job-training programs, reducing the cost of government, lowering your tax burden and protecting those in our society who struggle to protect themselves – the very young and the elderly. As we debated the budget until 4:30 am, we remained committed to protecting essential programs while ensuring that government spending tightens its belt, just as your family has had to do.

On a weekday afternoon, the first floor of the Texas Capitol is anything but peaceful. Tour guides wave their hands in a thousand directions like traffic cops at rush hour, groups of third-grade students gaze up at the never-ending staircase spiraling the center dome, and tourists armed with brochures crowd the majority of the walking areas.

Parents of home-school children showed their support in Austin this week for a bill aimed at protecting their parental rights from litigious grandparents.

State Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, has filed a bill that would make it more difficult for grandparents to sue parents for access to their grandchildren — protection the parents say they need.

Speaking before the House Human Services Committee on Thursday, King said the law has been abused by people who, in many cases, disagree with how their grandchildren are being educated. Often, King said, grandparents have more income to spend on dragging out the litigation.

Bobby Pickard and Lisa Kelly can once again enjoy the birds and watch their children play while sitting on their porches.

Two years ago, that wasn’t possible. Pickard, Kelly and others in the eastern Parker County subdivision of Chisholm Heights were battling an energy company over gas trucks roaring through their neighborhood to drilling sites.

The Barnet Shale is both a blessing and a curse to Parker and Wise counties. The economics benefits have been wonderful and our state and nation certainly need the domestic natural gas (which is now being imported more and more from overseas). On the other hand, this is the first time Texas has had a major gas play in such a populated, growing community like our counties. The result has been serious, costly road damage caused by truck traffic, disruption caused by well-head sites, water conservation issues, and eminent domain cases from new gas pipelines.

Last Thursday, Governor Rick Perry announced his opposition to $555 million in federal economic stimulus money to expand the state's unemployment insurance program. As many of you know, I have been adamantly opposed to the Federal Stimulus Package from the beginning, because it represents terrible economic policy. My stance on the $555 million for unemployment compensation was a more difficult decision, one that I have str uggled with over the past several weeks. But, after exhaustive study, I have concluded that Gov. Perry's position is the best for Texas, and I will defend that action in the House.

Over the last two weeks, the House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding has held numerous hearings on the federal stimulus package recently passed by Congress. I have made it a priority to attend these hearings despite not being a member of the committee, because I feel strongly that fiscal conservatives must closely monitor the billions in tax dollars being funneled into our state.

During these difficult economic times, with congressional spending reaching over $1.5 trillion in the name of economic stimulus, the Texas Legislature has a responsibility to demonstrate fiscal restraint. Upholding sound budgeting practices will keep Texas from falling into the fiscal disrepair that the rest of the nation is experiencing.